3 Clever Ways to Mend a Hole in Clothing

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Do you have a pile of ripped or ruined clothing just waiting to be mended? Use these three clever ideas to conquer your closet and creatively mend your own clothes. Mending not only saves money, it adds new life to your favorite wardrobe items. Using only a few simple skills, your stained or torn clothing can be easily repaired so they're ready to be worn again.

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Image Credit: Sherri Sylvester

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Reverse Appliqué Patches

A garment patch can be customized to any shape or size, which means it can cover tears and stains of any size.

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Use a stretchy knit fabric to repair a stained or torn tee or leggings. A woven denim or cotton fabric is ideal for jeans or pants.

Be creative with the patch shape — cut out a circle, oval, teddy bear or cat head complete with whiskers!

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Things You'll Need

Image Credit: Sherri Sylvester

Step 1

Draw your desired patch shape around the damaged area. It may be simpler to draw the shape on a piece of scrap of paper, cut it out and then trace it on the fabric.

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Make sure the fabric scrap you'll use for the patch is larger than the shape.

Image Credit: Sherri Sylvester

Step 2

Place the fabric scrap under the fabric where you traced the shape. The right side of the scrap fabric should be facing the wrong side of the damaged garment, between the garment layers. Pin the fabrics together.

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If you are mending something stretchy, make sure the fabric scrap stretches in same direction as your garment.

Image Credit: Sherri Sylvester

Step 3

Thread the needle with embroidery floss. Make small stitches through both the scrap fabric and the garment, following your desired shape. Start and end your stitching with a knot hidden inside the garment.

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Image Credit: Sherri Sylvester

Tip

Place a thick card or piece of plastic between garment fabric layers (ex: inside a pant leg) to make stitching easier.

Step 4

Carefully cut away the garment fabric inside the stitched area to reveal the scrap fabric. Be careful not to cut through the backing fabric.

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Image Credit: Sherri Sylvester

Step 5

Turn your garment inside out and trim any excess scrap fabric from the inside.

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Image Credit: Sherri Sylvester

Step 6

If desired, embellish with more embroidery (like cats whiskers!).

Image Credit: Sherri Sylvester

And done!

Image Credit: Sherri Sylvester

Visible Mending

Any torn garment, especially a pair of well-worn jeans, deserves a second chance. Create a like-new piece of clothing with some simple hand-stitching and a scrap of fabric.

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Things You'll Need

Step 1

Flatten your garment so the original shape is preserved. Cut a fabric scrap to be larger than the tear so it covers it completely. Place the scrap fabric behind the tear and pin it in place.

Image Credit: Sherri Sylvester

Step 2

Thread your needle with embroidery floss. Stitch through and around the scrap fabric to secure it. Use a blanket stitch (as shown in the photo below), straight or another decorative stitch.

Image Credit: Sherri Sylvester

Step 3

For a decorative touch, add extra stitching like star shapes. Be creative!

Image Credit: Sherri Sylvester

Step 4

Adding more stitching elsewhere on the garment will make your mend look more purposeful. These X shapes on the side-seam to add to the unique look of the jeans.

Image Credit: Sherri Sylvester

Stain Cover-Up

Shirts and tees bear the brunt of most food stains. For those stains that just won't come out, just cover them up with this simple idea.

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Image Credit: Sherri Sylvester

Things You'll Need

  • Ribbon flowers, patches or other embellishments

  • Sewing needle

  • Thread

  • Straight pins

  • Fabric scissors

Image Credit: Sherri Sylvester

Step 1

Position your embellishments over all the stains. Add additional embellishments as necessary to make sure your mending looks purposeful. Pin each one in place.

Image Credit: Sherri Sylvester

Step 2

Thread the needle and tie a knot at the end. Starting on the inside of the garment, hand-stitch an embellishment to your garment with a few stitches. End your stitching with a knot on the inside of the garment to hide the stitching.

Image Credit: Sherri Sylvester

Step 3

Repeat until all pinned embellishments are secure. Enjoy your stain-free garment!

Image Credit: Sherri Sylvester

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